Retired Dp Editor `Bill' Hockstedler

Mr. Hockstedler, who retired from the Daily Press in 1979, is remembered as the kind of tough but considerate editor characterized in the television series "Lou Grant."

"A lot of what was in the series could have been about him. He was everything you could want in a newspaperman," said P.J. Budahn, a columnist with the Army Times who had worked as a reporter for Mr. Hockstedler at the Daily Press.

"For Hock the news and the truth were synonymous," said John Greiff, retired Daily Press political writer and editorial page editor. "He believed in the integrity of the news columns."

Mr. Hockstedler joined the Daily Press in July 1956. He started as a copy editor and went on to be wire editor, city editor and assistant managing editor/metro editor.

Mr. Hockstedler's crewcut and ramrod posture spoke of his pride in having served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Budahn recalled that his former editor had been in the first wave of Marines that landed on the South Pacific island of Tarawa in what would become "one of the bloodiest days" in World War II.